Is This Not

5:51AM, May 21

 Musings from 4.32AM: when I watched for first light this time yesterday and in an hour, just predawn, walked about a hundred strides to our northwest corner, along the way admiring the coloring horizon, then adjusting position to frame in the camera viewfinder a pleasing composition, is this not prayer? 

5:41AM, May 20

When we yesterday prepared the ground around shrubs planted last year, particularly to foreground the Ninebark  (Physocarpus opulifolius, good for wildlife, drought tolerant, “named for its unusual bark which peels in strips to reveal several layers of reddish to light brown inner bark”), positioning the Russian sage to repel deer by its odor and the Salvia to add complementary color and the Gaura (from Gk for supreme and/or from India, symbolizing purity and enlightenment; AKA—Bee blossom, Indian feather) to silhouette its white bloom before the lovely red brown, spending hours to co-create all this in anticipation of witnessing the showcase from our rockers on the porch—was not this worship?

the Garden

Just before drafting these meditations, I was reading the daily message from the Center for Action and Contemplation, “What Is Scripture to Me?*  and thus joining the conversation with Randy Woodley and Carmen Acevedo Butcher, sharing their experience with the scripture of nature. Also I resonated with Mark** reflecting on our memories of sacrifice, of the harvest of food and flower, of being nurtured by our ancestors—do these not compose the authentic congregation? For contemplation on the first and the last, for moving consciousness to attune and to reflect divine harmony: peace, beauty, truth, love… This Is

Witnessing

* https://cac.org/daily-meditations/what-is-scripture-to-me/

** Mark C. Taylor, Field Notes from Elsewhere: Reflections on Dying and Living.